18 – John (1st)

The epistle of 1st John was written on the island of Patmos by John the Evangelist. This is important as John was an eyewitness to the miracles of Christ. We get confirmation of the author based on the vocabulary used, the writing structure of the letter and the way that it is written all lead towards it being John.

This is a general or catholic (universal) epistle in that it is not dedicated to a particular individual and meant for a wide readership and John deals with the false doctrine known as “Docetism” which deals with the idea that Jesus was not fully human and fully God, that Jesus only appeared human and did not actually come “in the flesh”. This idea comes from the Greek word “Dokētaí” which means “illusion” and was a heresy of a Gnostic culture that wished to take away from the idea that Jesus was fully man and fully God.

This is dangerous ground theologically as in order for Jesus to be the Messiah or Savior he would be the perfect man, fully in flesh, but as God who is sinless and perfect, Jesus is part of the triune God and as the Son part of the trinity. The doctrine of Docetism died around the 4th century and is now considered heretical by both Catholic and Reformed Christian denominations.

This is what separates true Christianity from the doctrines of the Jehovah’s Witness, the Latter Day Saints and the Mormons who do not see Christ as the redeemer but merely a lesser being, an illuminator, a god or the brother of the devil. We have to get our Christology correct in order for our faith to be secure.

I have divided the book as follows:

1) 1st John 1:1-2:2 – Fellowship with him and one another
2) 1st John 2:3-14 – Knowing Him and our Spiritual State
3) 1st John 2:15-27 – Do not love the world or be deceived
4) 1st John 2:28-3:9 – Sin and the Children of God
5) 1st John 3:10-23 – Love, it’s outworking and imperative state
6) 1st John 3:24-4:16 – Voice of truth, Knowing & seeing God through love
7) 1st John 4:17-5:5 – Consummation of love & Obedience by faith
8) 1st John 5:6-13 – Certainty of God’s Witness
9) 1st John 5:14-17 – Confidence and compassion in prayer
10) 1st John 5:18-21 – Knowing what is true and false – review of letter

God bless and I pray this was a blessing and please feel free to like, share or comment on here or whatever social media platforms you use as the Lord leads you to, as always I love questions about this or any other article so please feel free to fill in the form below, all comments are moderated to avoid profanity.TTETGBTGSDG